Severance pay from UNC may affect Butch Davis’s deal with Bucs

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 10, 2012, 10:48 AM EST

AP

Although the news came out yesterday that new Bucs coach Greg Schiano has hired his old friend and colleague Butch Davis, there have been conflicting reports about precisely what role Davis will have in Tampa Bay. And the reason for the conflicting reports appears to be an issue regarding Davis wanting to collect paychecks from the Bucs while also collecting all the severance pay he can from the University of North Carolina.

North Carolina fired Davis in July amid an NCAA investigation into academic misconduct and accusations that players received impermissible benefits from agents. According to the Tampa Bay Times, when Davis was fired the school agreed to give him up to $2.7 million in severance. (Because giving $2.7 million to a football coach who was fired amid a scandal is a great way for a public university to use its resources.)

Davis has already received $933,000 of that severance, but the rest of it comes in increments of $590,000 a year in 2013, 2014 and 2015 — but only if Davis is unable to find a coaching job. If Davis has resumed his coaching career, North Carolina can deduct his coaching salary from that $590,000, and if his coaching salary is more than $590,000 North Carolina doesn’t have to pay him anything.

So Davis is apparently hoping to work out a title with the Buccaneers in which he will “serve the Bucs in an advisory capacity” rather than become a coach, and therefore he’d be able to get paid by the Bucs while still collecting his full severance from North Carolina.

Davis hasn’t signed a contract with the Bucs yet, and it’s still possible that they’ll just hire him as a coach, pay him more than $590,000 a year, and end North Carolina’s obligation to pay him anything. But at the moment he doesn’t have a specific title, and North Carolina isn’t off the hook.

He is neither player NOR agent here…he was more than likely just part of the fall out from the scandal…pay him or not I just want him in Tampa..its been YEARS since we had any kind of coaching..Im ready for the Schiano/Davis era to start WAR BUCS!!

ttommytom says:Feb 10, 2012 11:14 AM

Hats off to Spags, Sparano and other coaches who are essentially coaching for free. They love their craft and have not forgotten they never started to get rich in the first place.

Davis has lost sight of this and what is left of his reputation will also be gone.

zeusiv0ii says:Feb 10, 2012 11:14 AM

This sure sounds to me like a coach that’s in it for the long haul and is going to have a nice long tenure in TB…

wow life is good for some. Dufus Davis gets to collect $600K per year now and for the next few years for being an incompetent scumbag.

chalkruz1989 says:Feb 10, 2012 11:36 AM

I really find the critics on here to be hysterical. You mean to tell me you wouldn’t try any which way to recoup that money? Step off the high-horse guys, it’s life and he’s trying to get as much as he can which is what we all try.

hekofit says:Feb 10, 2012 11:37 AM

If I remember correctly, Davis got $9 million from Randy Lerner when he walked away from the Browns job in the middle of the season.
Damn, he is the hall of famer of getting paid not to work.

buc13jcs says:Feb 10, 2012 11:56 AM

So Butch should take the fall for what was a complete effort by the program… You guys want him to be the fall guy AND not get anything to show for it…you guys live in an alternate “ethical” reality

“if i could just get a job like that, i feel fairly confident i could get fired amidst a scandal.”

Now THAT is funny!!!

I love the hire and anybody on this site would take all the money they could get. Keep on with the Mother Theresa sham, you people would do what the Steve Miller band sung about “Take the money and run” woo, hoo hoo

I’ll be happy when UNC refuses to pay him his severance because of his new job advising the Bucs. I am sure a judge in NC is going to be real receptive to his argument that he is a football advisor and not a coach.

Hats off to Spags, Sparano and other coaches who are essentially coaching for free.

_________________

A lot of dumb things get said on this website, but holy crap, that is up there!

All of those guys are getting the full amount of their head coaching salaries right now. They are getting paid a lesser fee for their current assistant duties, and the difference is paid by their old ball clubs.

Davis will get paid his money from UNC-CH and they will just take it. He was given that money to go away and shut up because he knows where all the bodies lie even though his contract specifically stated that he could be fired with cause and thus not be owed anything if his team committed any major NCAA violation.

The UNC-CH Board of Trustees and the UNC System Board of Governors want to protect any and all secrets pertaining to their sacred cow (basketball) so they will not attempt to cut Butchie off.

lol @ you guys. Butch Davis even with the scandal made UNC very relevant. They had like 9-10 drafted players this past draft. They’ll have another 5-6 this one. He’s a helluva recruiter – who did an amazing job in Carolina. They are still bringing in good players off the strength of what he did there.

That UNC money is guaranteed for 3 years. He could be fired after one season in Tampa. He has a guaranteed 3 years of pay for his family, if I were him I would do the same thing. Most of you guys would do the same exact thing – if you were in the situation.

thraiderskin says:Feb 10, 2012 1:17 PM

If UNC had fired him over his win/loss record, I would have no issue. It is because he helped put that school into serious trouble and now he will get to double dip… Its an issue of moral integrity here, you damned a school and now expect to get paid by it and the NFL? absolutly amazing.

ytownie says:Feb 10, 2012 1:33 PM

Jim Tressel was just named Vice President of strategic engagement at U of Akron. Sounds like a title Butch could use in Tampa.

I love how people here are all high and mighty, as if they wouldn’t do the exact same thing.

Imagine being the fall guy for a scandal. You’re saying you would be too high brow to want to keep collecting from an employer who made you their scapegoat?

BS.

All of you would make the same tweak to your contracts.

As for this “Do it for the love of the game” thing. Not many people take that tone when it comes to the players. What? Players are allowed to go for the largest payday possible…but coaches are supposed to do it as a labor of love.

nicbsbll2 says:
Feb 10, 2012 12:40 PM
Davis will get paid his money from UNC-CH and they will just take it. He was given that money to go away and shut up because he knows where all the bodies lie even though his contract specifically stated that he could be fired with cause and thus not be owed anything if his team committed any major NCAA violation.

The UNC-CH Board of Trustees and the UNC System Board of Governors want to protect any and all secrets pertaining to their sacred cow (basketball) so they will not attempt to cut Butchie off.
_________________________

Yeah Roy Williams was alll the time telling Butch how to commit NCAA violations. There are no bodies with respect to the basketball program. The Board of Trustees has no love for him and will certainly take the first opportunity they can to stop paying him.

FinFan68 says:Feb 10, 2012 2:13 PM

Despicable. That attitude would be enough for me to say never mind. That is not the type of person I would want on my team, much less coaching it and influencing young players that have far too many ethical or behavioral problems to begin with. The Bucs should publicly move on if these allegations are true.

d3murf says:
Feb 10, 2012 12:53 PM
lol @ you guys. Butch Davis even with the scandal made UNC very relevant. They had like 9-10 drafted players this past draft. They’ll have another 5-6 this one. He’s a helluva recruiter – who did an amazing job in Carolina. They are still bringing in good players off the strength of what he did there.

****

you make a valid point and provide a pretty accurate historical timeline only you cut off your own timeline right before present day unc. butch absolutely made unc’s football program relevant. however his and john blakes’ ostensible smoking-gun cheating they were busted for has set the program back further than we ever would have been had we never had him in the first place.

nowadays keenan stadium feels like a 3A highschool. fans are checked out. boosters are checked out. alumni are all back at the b-ball games. our program and the university were scarred by this guy.

buyer beware with butch. he’s a great recruiter and horrible at coaching 1st round draft talent. i don’t know how that is supposed to translate positively in the nfl…

wizahdry says:Feb 10, 2012 7:23 PM

I am happy about adding Davis to the staff. I have followed the man’s career and there is no doubt he is a good football man that can help this team. However, this special title stuff is ridiculous. Not worth the risk of confusing the players and a possible lawsuit by UNC just so Butch can stick it to the school that fired him. Pay him the difference, make him the official d coordinator and cut the drama!

Stunts like this are the exact reason the Bucs are the laughing stock of the league again.